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Monday, August 15, 2011

The best quilts are often the ones we make for people we love. When I make a project for myself I allow myself to cut corners, but for someone else I'll pull out the ole seam ripper!! Can you relate?? Today's quilt from Kelly of Blue Bird Sews she made for her Grandmother (in-law). Such a nice gift! Make sure to see Kelly's great quilt finishes, as well as this Concrete Cabin Block Quilt Tutorial. Fun stuff!!

I am happy to bring you my latest finish from a pile of fabric to the finished quilt in it's new home. So sit back and let me tell you the whole quilt story (foul ups and all!)

My Grandma-in-Law (GIL for short) requested I make her a quilt about two months ago. She had only a few requriments: A queen sized blue and white quilt to match her bedroom -- by winter time. Little did she know I had a surprise in mind for finishing this quilt in time to give it to her during our vacation to visit the family in July! (more on that later) She left the over all design and fabric patterns up to me. It was a blast picking some favorites from my stash and rounding them out with just a couple of purchases - mainly a lot of Kona White!

Fabric chosen, a perfect match to GIL tastes

The design came quickly, saw tooth stars set in an Irish Chain with a medallion in the center. I set about sewing my stars first, and then realized I'd made a big wonky mistake on each block!

First blocks

I thought I knew how to make flying geese blocks, turns out I was wrong! I centered the triangles when sewing them together instead of lining up the edges! How dumb right! I learned a big lesson that day, take a minute and read some directions before starting. But it wasn't the end of world, I just cut a new set of blocks and made 24 perfect Saw Tooth Stars.

A plan, new blocks and ready squares

The rest of the quilt top came together perfectly! And so far in my quilting career, it's the most accurate quilt I've ever made. I did a little happy dance about that! (sorry no picture of that!)

A perfect top ready to quilt

Long arm quilting is my new favorite part of quilting. Taking a top in for a few hours and walking out with a quilt sandwich is so gratifying. I found a great quilt shop close by to rent time on their long arm machine. After an intro class and a practice top session I was ready to try an easy stipple, loopy'd loops and a single flower in the center.But not before I made one whole pass with the tension totally our of whack! t before I made one whole pass with the tension totally out of whack! Thanks goodness the ladies that run the shop are super helpful, because it took two of us 20 minutes to pick out all the bad stitches. But that's okay because in the end I was in love, look at that smile -- I'm a happy quilter!

I finished the quilting a week before we left for our NY vacation to visit the in-laws and introduce everyone to the latest addition, Baby J. The quilt came with us so that I could give it to GIL in person! Hooray!

Grandma with her new quilt! She's happy too!

My in-laws live in just about the most beautiful little farming town in up-up State NY. The kind of place where there are old farm house and lots of corn fields. I am in heaven here, I'm a city girl trapped in a country girl's body. And with the most beautiful farm house just up the road we took the quilt over for a photo shoot with the barns, tractors and porches.

Remember those messed up saw tooth stars? I put them to good use on the back of the quilt. They don't look wonky from here :)

This might be my favorite picture of the quilt!

Does it get anymore iconic? Nope!

A shot of the full front

The whole back

And now it lives with Grandma and she couldn't be more pleased! It ties her whole bedroom together, don't you think.

The quilt in it's native habitat, Grandma's Room!

Thanks for coming along on my quilt journey. This quilt was such a joy to make and to give! But having all the pictures to share along the way is just awesome!

Love it! Well done. What a lovely gift and so beautifully crafted. You are a credit to your GIL. And yes, I like to think of quilts I make for myself as a learning exercise. Whereas quilts for those I love...they need to be the best I can make them so the seam ripper gets a wrk out...aka plenty of reverse sewing!

Beautiful quilt... perfect for you GIL's bedroom... I'm sure she was thrilled! I know I would have been to receive such a lovely quilt. Congratulations on such a fantastic finish... and all those lovely photos too!